MURRIETA: Former Murrieta man to be tried on child molestation charges

A judge on Tuesday ordered a former Murrieta resident and Chula Vista firefighter to stand trial on charges of sexually molesting two children.

In making his decision, Judge Kelly Hansen said the prosecution presented enough evidence in Tuesday's hearing to try the defendant, William Robert Bolduc, 56, on two counts of performing lewd acts with a child younger than 14 and two counts of engaging in oral copulation or sexual penetration with a child younger than 10.

In a case being prosecuted separately, Bolduc faces charges of rape, sodomy and concealing a camera to invade someone's privacy in connection with a March 2010 incident.

In that incident, authorities say, Bolduc sexually assaulted and photographed his unconscious fiancee in her Murrieta home.

If convicted on all counts on the child molestation case, Bolduc could be sentenced to 60 years to life in prison; he faces a maximum penalty of 12 years in prison in the other case.

Bolduc already had been charged with the rape and related counts when he was rearrested in December on the child molestation allegations.

The father told authorities that two of his children from a previous marriage had revealed that earlier in their lives, when they were not in his custody and living in the San Diego area, they had been touched inappropriately by a man they identified as Bolduc.

Their revelations came when their parents had put the daughter in counseling after she began acting erratically.

Because Bolduc is already in Riverside County's court system in the other case, the San Diego County district attorney agreed to let Riverside handle the case involving the children.

Deputy District Attorney Sean Crandell called three witnesses to the stand in Tuesday's hearing, including two investigators from the Boise Police Department who specialize in child abuse cases.

Both officers testified that they had observed social workers' interviews last summer of the two children from separate rooms through one-way monitors.

Officer Angela Raney said the boy identified as John Doe, then 11 years old, responded to questioning from the social worker by stating that "Bill" had told him they were playing a game and rubbed lotion on what he called his "private spot."

Crandell asked if the boy, who said he was 3 or 4 years old at the time of the contact, knew the difference between appropriate and inappropriate touching.

"He made a distinction that this was different, that this was something that should not have happened," Raney said.

Boise Detective Jennifer Oster testified that the girl, whom she identified as Jane Doe, seemed highly articulate for her age, 8, at the time of the interview.

Oster said the girl turned serious when she was asked questions about being touched by the defendant when she was about 3 years old.

"She started crying," Oster said. "She said some bad things had happened to her."

According to Oster, the girl said Bolduc on several occasions had kissed her and put her hands all over her body, including her genitals and buttocks, and had penetrated her with his "hands."

In his cross-examinations of the officers and the children's mother, Bolduc's defense attorney, Chris Whelton, sought to distinguish whether the defendant's contact with the boy might have been for a routine medical treatment.

He also questioned whether the testimony of the girl could be relied upon given her age and the long time-lapse between the incidents and her admissions.

The judge said, however, that the boy's statement that Bolduc had told him they were playing a game swayed him to believe there could be merit to the allegation in that incident.

Also, he said, details as to the setting and time frame provided by the mother corroborated the descriptions supplied by the girl of the activity leading to those allegations.